Looper, Cardinals blank Pirates

Looper worked seven outstanding innings and combined with two
relievers on a three-hitter as the St. Louis Cardinals posted a
3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were playing their
home opener.

A setup man or closer over his first nine seasons in the majors,
the 32-year-old Looper (1-1) was chosen to fill the void in the
rotation. He took the loss in his first start, allowing three
runs in six innings Wednesday against the New York Mets.

"He just did so many good things," Cardinals manager Tony La
Russa said. "Moving the ball around, showing a lot of different
looks. I can't give him enough credit. He carried it deep
into the game, too."

Despite battling game-time temperatures of 37 degrees, Looper
was brilliant in his second career start, yielding just two hits
and three walks while striking out three.

"I definitely felt like I made some good pitches today," Looper
said. "I was able to make good pitches when I needed to and
really stayed away from that one huge mistake.

"It's a good feeling to be sitting on the bench after throwing
seven innings."

Ryan Franklin worked around a one-out hit to log the eighth and
fellow righthander Jason Isringhausen tossed a scoreless ninth
for his second save of the season.

Albert Pujols had a double, single and scored twice while David
Eckstein had two hits for the Cardinals, who improved to 22-10
vs. Pittsburgh since the beginning of the 2005 campaign.

Pujols entered the game batting .396 with 19 home runs and 51
RBI in 45 career games at PNC Park.

"It's funny," Pujols said. "I was coming over here and the taxi
driver said, 'Hey, you enjoy hitting in this park, don't you?'
Sometimes that's the way it goes. Sometimes you hit good some
places; sometimes you don't hit that good in some places."

St. Louis took the lead in the fourth, when Scott Rolen ripped a
single off Pirates starter Ian Snell (0-1) to plate Pujols.

"It's not frustrating; our team played good," Snell said.
"There's no getting around that. We played hard, we made
defensive plays. There were just a few plays that came back to
bite us, and that cost us big-time."

The Cardinals added insurance in the eighth when pinch hitter
Preston Wilson crushed a pinch-hit two-run double with two outs
to make it 3-0.

"You preferably don't want to get jammed or hit one off the end
of the bat on a day like today," Wilson said of the frigid
conditions. "But they've got to play in the weather also, and
sometimes when it's cold on a day like today, the ball is a
little bit slick and they don't get as good a grip in it as they
want to."

Despite receiving no run support, Snell pitched well over seven
innings, yielding one run and six hits with one walk and three
strikeouts.

"We played a good ballgame today," Pirates manager Jim Tracy
said. "Obviously Braden Looper did a great job against our
offense, but Ian Snell was terrific also.

"We just weren't able to mount anything offensively today, I
think that's what it boils down to."